Nine To Noon for Monday 9 September 2024

09:05 Regional deals are coming, but what are they?

Regional deals are the Government's strategy to improve infrastructure, increase housing supply and stimulate economic growth, all without bumping up rates. The Government will soon invite select regions to provide proposals for regional deals with the first one to be finalised next year. Bryan Crump talks to Local Government NZ president Sam Broughton, BECA Technical Director Patrick McVeigh and Kalimena Advisory's  Linda Meade. 

09:20 A new stroke unit at Middlemore as numbers grow

Stroke is the second biggest killer in New Zealand behind heart disease and is the leading cause of long term disability in adults.Middlemore hospital has a new enlarged stroke unit to meet growing numbers of stroke patients. Over 10,000 strokes are experienced every year in New Zealand and three quarters of them are preventable. Dr Arindam Kar is Senior Medical Officer - Stroke; and Clinical Head at Counties Manukau. He tells Bryan about the latest research on treating strokes, and how they can be prevented.

09:30 Beatriz Romilly on taking the lead in the powerful one-person play Girls and Boys 

Beatriz Romilly is a relative newcomer to New Zealand, but is establishing quite a name for herself in the theatre scene. Born in Spain, she emigrated to the UK when she was five, eventually training at the Drama Centre London and working across stage and screen. Before following her New Zealand husband back to his homeland, she made her West End debut in 2.22 A Ghost Story with Tom Felton, of Harry Potter fame. Last year she played evil Edmund in the Auckland Theatre Company's King Lear. This year she takes the lead in Dennis Kelly's powerful play Girls and Boys which opens at Auckland's Waterfront Theatre on Thursday night.

09:45 Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney

Seamus looks at why tens of thousands of people took to the streets in French cities at the weekend, protesting President Macron's choice of prime minister. Greece says it's taking action against the increasing numbers of cruise ship visitors, as complaints about over-tourism in Europe reach boiling point. Spain has welcomed welcomed the Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez and his wife, with the couple saying they want to seek asylum following a political crisis over the result of July's election.

10:05 92 year old Grandad Sings the internet sensation

Edwin Rayner is a 92 year old internet sensation - with 378 thousand followers on Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube. His covers of modern songs are loved around the world under the name "Grandad Sings". Edwin's version of Lana Del Ray's song video games has had 16.8 million views and is available on Spotify and Apple Music. And there's a hint in the name: Edwin's success is also down to his two granddaughter's Laura and Liv, who got Grandad onto Tiktok two years ago. That's when things really started taking off. Edwin lives independently in Bournemouth in England, and drives to a local recording studio once a week where he records a song - and the girls do the magic on social media. He and his granddaughters speak with Bryan Crump.

 

10:35 Book review: Ngā Hapa Reo: Common Māori Language Errors by Hona Black and Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell 

Paul Diamond reviews Ngā Hapa Reo: Common Māori Language Errors by Hona Black and Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell published by Oratia Books

10:45 Around the motu: John Freer covering the Coromandel Peninsula

John says challenges facing local government is no more evident than in Thames with a massive potential infrastructure bill of around $140 million facing the town 5500 ratepayers. And one of the region’s coastal walks is proving very popular, meanwhile there are signs of progress over getting the Cathedral Cove walking track reopened.

11:05 Political commentators Sue Moroney & Ben Thomas

Sue and Ben look back on a momentous week for Te Ao Māori with the tangi of Kiīngi Tūheitia and his daughter crowned the eighth Māori monarch. Sue and Ben discuss the significance, amid the belief Kuini Nga wai hono i te po will be the voice for rangatahi. Also, they'll discuss most councils voting to keep Māori wards, and health and social service providers remaining on the receiving end of cutbacks.
 

 

Sue Moroney is a former MP with the Labour Party and now chief executive of Community Law Centres Aotearoa
Ben Thomas is a former National government press secretary, a columnist and a director of public affairs firm Capital.

 

11:30 K'Road's Italian staple Coco's Cantina turns 15

When sisters Renee and Damaris Coulter set up Coco's Cantina on a corner of Auckland's K'Road, they were just focused on the restaurant's survival. But 15 years later, the restaurant's become a K'Road institution. While Damaris moved on to set up another business, Renee has been focused on taking Coco's down the path to carbon neutrality - something she says is a real challenge within the hospitality industry. She talks about that journey, and how it's embraced its quirky location and added a bit of spice by teaming up with the neighbours at Las Vegas Nite Club to run a burlesque show.

11:45 What lies beneath; explaining how city sewerage works

Urban issues correspondent Bill McKay looks at one of our most vital - but overlooked - pieces of infrastructure: sewerage. How do they work, where does responsibility for them begin and end and what happens if you're thinking of building on top of them? Could there be a better way to do sewerage?

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.